Power presses are built in a wide variety of styles and sizes to perform a variety of functions, such as stamping, drawing, forming and many others. The deleterious effect of impact loading associated with many functions of power presses is well known and recognized. A variety of cushion arrangements for use in power presses is well known. Examples of such cushion arrangements associated with power presses are taught in: U.S. Pat. No. 4,732,033, entitled, "Pneumatic Die Cushion", issued Mar. 22, 1988, to Smedberg, et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,615, entitled, "Pneumatic Press Counterbalance", issued Apr. 12, 1988, to Smedberg, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,460, entitled, "Cushion Construction .lz Including Snubber", issued Jan. 10, 1989, to Smedberg, et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,681, entitled, "Pneumatic Press Counterbalance and Cushion Construction", issued May 2, 1989, to Smedberg, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,571, entitled, "Power Press With Improved Cushioning System", issued Aug. 29, 1989, to Smedberg, et al; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,930,336, entitled, "Single Action Cylinder", issued Jun. 5, 1990, to Smedberg, et al.
Though cushioning improves operation of a power press, it is still necessary to provide a means to modulate the force applied by a press ram to a work piece and stationary portions of the press to reduce further the deleterious effect of undesired shock loading on parts of the press and to achieve a smooth application of force to a work piece.